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| - Fact Check: 2017 video of Indian man in UK caught grooming minor viral as recent
India Today found that this incident is over six years old. Praju Prasad was catfished by a vigilante group that catches child predators.
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India Today Fact Check
This incident is not recent. It occurred in July 2017, when Praju Prasad was catfished by a vigilante group. He was arrested and fined.
A video that’s been widely shared on social media purports to show an Indian man begging for mercy at a UK metro station after being caught trying to groom a minor.
Those sharing the video claimed that the man, Praju Prasad, was caught trying to “have sex with a 12-year-old”. Despite pleading for mercy, the man was escorted by the police in the video.
Allegedly, this video showed a recent incident. "Another Andh Bhakt ‘Praju Prasad’, from India, was caught at a UK metro station for trying to have sex with a ‘12-year-old girl, whom he had met online. Andh Bhakt are thinking that Rishi Sunak has become the Prime Minister of UK, which means the UK has also become a part of Akhand Bharat," read a tweet containing the video. The archived version of such a post can be seen here.
India Today found that the incident is more than six years old, and predates Sunak’s Prime Ministership by half a decade.
OUR PROBE
A keyword search led us to a July 2017 report in the UK Metro that contained a screenshot from the viral video.
This report said that a vigilante group called “Guardians of the North” confronted 24-year-old Praju Prasad in North Sheilds, a town in England. This makes it clear that the incident is nearly six years old.
We then found a Daily Mail report dated July 14, 2017, that revealed that Prasad, a resident of North Shields, engaged in text conversations with someone he believed to be a 12-year-old girl on social media.
He was, however, being catfished. Prasad had actually been talking to members of the vigilante group pretending to be a 12-year-old.
This report also included screenshots of the conversations that occurred between Prasad and the members of the group, where Prasad suggested they “take a room” and “have some fun”.
According to other reports from July 2017, Prasad began pleading for mercy when confronted by the members of the vigilante group.
Subsequently, he was taken into custody by the police and ultimately received a nine-month prison sentence, along with a £140 fine. He was also ordered to sign the sex offenders register for five years.
It's worth mentioning that in July 2017, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom was Theresa May. Rishi Sunak assumed office as Prime Minister in October 2022.
Therefore, it is evident that the video making the rounds is more than six years old and not recent at all.
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